The Hong Kong Advanced Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Studies of the City University of Hong Kong organised the 2nd Asia-Europe Forum on Methods and Perspectives of Risk Analysis on 8-9 November 2012, in collaboration with the IN-EAST Institute of East Asian Studies of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, coordinator of the EastAsiaNet thematic research network that includes the East Asian Studies & Research Centre of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Inter-Asia and the CIDOB Foundation of Barcelona think tank. Seán Golden, a member of the Inter-Asia research group, spoke on the topic of A Discourse Analysis of the Official and Non-official Communiocation of Ecological Risk and its Subsequent Management in the PRC:Abstract
This paper will present a case study of three sources of discourse for the communication of ecological risk in the PRC and its subsequent management. The three sources are: the discourse of informal, nongovernmental or emergent civil society communication of ecological risk (social movements, protest movements, critical analysis of risk and governmental policy); the discourse of formal or academic, nongovernmental communication of ecological risk (academics, advisers, opinion-makers); the official, governmental communication of ecological risk (official think tanks, ministry documents). These three kinds of communication will then be compared and contrasted with the results of official management of ecological risk in the PRC. The working hypothesis of this study is that even though awareness of ecological risk is high among the emergent civil society, the ministry advisers and the policy-makers, the management of ecological risk is hampered by contradictory priorities and criteria in the meritocratic evaluation of performance by government and Party officials, on the one hand, and the generation of wealth, on the other. This debate is analogous to the debate on efficiency (the generation of wealth) and equity (the redistribution of wealth) in the field of economic planning and performance.
